You can see the petty, bureaucratic thinking behind the proposed cut. The theatre attracts a predominantly white, middle-class audience. The neighbouring Richmond Theatre serves the borough well. But this ossified attitude overlooks the vital contribution made by the Orange Tree to our theatrical life. If the cut goes ahead, it will inevitably mean that the theatre's trainee director scheme gets chopped. At a time when there are dismally few chances for young directors to learn their craft, this has been a brilliant success. Recent graduates include Rachel Kavanaugh (now running Birmingham Rep), Timothy Sheader (new boss of the Open Air, Regent's Park), Ellie Jones (head of Southwark Playhouse), Anthony Clark (Hampstead Theatre's director) and Sean Holmes (a star of the RSC and the Old Vic). One can only assume, sadly, that the current trainee, Katie Henry, may be the last of a long and distinguished line.

The Orange Tree's importance also lies in the fact it does something no-one else does: it offers themed seasons of work by neglected playwrights. I know that the current season of work by Women Dramatists was attacked, in principle, by some bloggers. In practice, it has led to exciting discoveries. It's already given us an astonishing piece by Elizabeth Baker, Chains, about Edwardian wage-slaves. Its current premiere of Fanny Burney's The Woman Hater also proves British theatre lost a vital comic voice through the suppression of her talent. Upcoming work by American Susan Glaspell and the little-known Joanna Baillie will, one hopes, confirm that women dramatists have been unjustly and outrageously marginalised over the last two centuries.

Only a bunch of incompetents would seek to trim the sails of one of London's most important theatres. And, as someone who has sat on Arts Council panels and also worked for theatres that thrived on Arts Council patronage, I now reluctantly conclude that the organisation has probably had its day. Politicised in the Thatcherite Eighties and progressively demoralised in the Nineties, it now looks a thing of naught in the Noughties. I can see the dangers of direct funding by government but it couldn't be worse than the current chaos. "Imagine," Nick Hytner said to me this week, "the howls that would have gone up if the current cuts had been imposed by a government department." Yes, but at least the government would have been accountable to the Commons and the electorate. And the decision-making process could not be less transparent than it is under the present system.

So I sadly conclude it is time the Arts Council was dismantled. In the meantime my heartfelt sympathies go out to theatres like the Bush, the Northcott and the Orange Tree which are being ridiculously penalised for their success.